US, world powers strengthening India against Pakistan: Asif

SIALKOT: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday said all the world powers including United States (US) were making India potent against Pakistan by supplying arms, ARY News reported.

“Our foreign policy has not failed because we do not solely rely on America,” he said while addressing a ceremony regarding Youm-e-Takbeer in Sialkot.

The minister lamented that US and other world powers were providing arms to India, while F-16 jets and military aid to Pakistan was being blocked despite its uncountable sacrifices in the war on terror.

Commenting on US drone strike in Noshki, Balochistan, Asif said the attack sabotaged Afghan peace process. “Afghanistan is still unstable as it was before 9/11,” he said.

He slammed that Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mullah Fazlullah, sitting back in Afghanistan, orchestrates massacre of innocent children in Pakistan, but the US takes no action against him.

This should be noted here that F-16 deal is said to have expired amid Pakistan-US row over finances. U.S. had said it would not be financing the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan after the U.S. Congress went against deal. In return, Pakistan said it will acquire jets from elsewhere if the US did not fund the purchase.

The relations between the two countries have got tensed since the US apparently violated Pakistan’s air space and killed Taliban chief Mullah Mansour Akhtar in Noshki, near Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The defence minister said had Pakistan not been an atomic power, the world would not have let Pakistanis live.